#YouthSailing - US sailor Morgan Reeser gave an inspiring talk to over 50 young sailors, their instructors and a few parents at Sutton Dinghy Club on Thursday 3 July, writes Andrew Johnston.
Reeser's son Nicolas has been a regular attendee at courses in Sutton the last two summers while on holiday in the locality, and this week has been sailing in Sutton Creek with his father and some of the other trainees.
Morgan Reeser, a 470 Olympic silver medallist in Barcelona 1992, is currently coaching both the US and Austrian Olympic 470 hopefuls and successfully coached the Greek 470 women's team to Olympic gold in Athens 2004 and the British 470 men to Olympic silver in Weymouth during London 2012.
He talked to the juniors about his first 'start sailing' course in Miami in an Optimist, as well as some of his sailing heroes and the coaches that inspired him.
Reeser also remembered his first visit to Dublin in 1981 for an inter-country team racing event sailed in Shamrock half-tonners in Dun Laoghaire, and obviously about his preparation for the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992.
His abiding memory of the final race of the regatta, after finishing in a tight bunch, was that he and his crew Kevin Burnham didn't find out till they reached the marina 40 mins later that they had won a medal.
He outlined the fine margins between medaling and missing out at events, explaining they would have been out of the medals altogether if they had dropped a single place in their best race at the regatta, which happened to be a race win.
Reeser was back at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and while he failed to take a medal, he met his future wife, none other than Irish Olympic 470 sailor Louise Cole.
The winning of an Olympic medal is obviously a fantastic memory for Reeser, but one of his best memories is of the opening ceremony in Barcelona and the opportunity to meet up with top-class athletes from around the world.
Since turning to coaching, Reeser has encouraged his Olympic hopefuls to attend the opening ceremony as this is one of the things that make it the 'Games' and not just another regatta.
Sutton Dinghy Club Commodore Andy Johnston presented Reeser with a club burgee and thanked him for taking the time drop in and talk with the club's young sailors and their instructors.
Before getting back on the water, many of the kids availed of the opportunity to get the autograph of a fully fledged Olympic medalist on what was a memorable morning for the young sailors and indeed for all in attendance.
